


Alphabetical Order

by lferion



Series: Storage-verse [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Highlander: The Series
Genre: Artifacts dangerous and beautiful, Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, Crossover, Evil Viziers, Gen, Immortals in Space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-16
Updated: 2011-03-16
Packaged: 2017-10-17 00:52:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/171130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lferion/pseuds/lferion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From one doctor to another, in good order.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alphabetical Order

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sentientcitizen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sentientcitizen/gifts).



And there it was, hidden in alphabetical order: the foldspace container manifest, tracking chip code, point of origin and destination. The dry words of condensed description did no justice to the object contained - how do you convey in a 255 variable character field that the space between the arches was what mattered, and the stone and brick and clay were merely the medium to define that space? That the pattern of the tiles held a key, and the worn square flagstone slightly offset from center, measuring little more than two feet on a side, marked the grave of innumerable spirits that had sacrificed themselves to turn that key?

_(Firefly lights flickering, spinning, vanishing in swaths as stars vanished, and Time bent under the strain….)_

The holo-pic showed an eight-sided, open structure, with redbrick showing through worn stucco, and broken places in the parapet that hid a flat roof. Pale blue water sparkled in the openings, water just beyond the archways, the paved apron on the other side. One could walk around it in a moment, sand and shells crunching underfoot. One could even go straight through, linger for a moment looking up at the tile work on the ceiling, try to read the shapes and scratches on the stones that paved the floor, the graffiti on the stucco, most of the time. Most people.

Earth had held it long, the outward form shifting slowly with the building techniques and fashions of the era, known for what it was by two only, and now it was leaving Earth, destined for Storage (the Exciting World of Storage! Room for all your archive needs!), to sit again on a shoreline, reflecting a shoreless sea. Safe from covetous, conscienceless viziers, single-minded altruists, and bumbling fools alike.

Hidden in the archipelago of Alphabetical Order, among the Aitches: Harmony, Temple of, subcategory I.

“From one doctor to another” murmured Methos as he sealed the last of the authorization and caution tapes over the seam-locks, fixing it in the web of identical containers, one among many. “I’ll keep an eye on it for you. As long as it takes.”

* * *

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Image from Mini-Nano 2010 Day 12. I have no idea whence it came before that.


End file.
